Getting in Deep in tournaments

[play_err_1]

Each time I join tourneys, Hold 'em, Omaha (hi/lo), I manage to stay in but have not been consistent at making the final table. As I have finished 1st on some tournaments, I would like to know what it is that I consistently do wrong so that I can adjust my gameplay late in tourneys. On tourneys like holdem that has anywhere between 350-500 people, I manage to stay late with a good chip stack and find myself dropping anywhere from 40th-60th place. One thing I know keep doing wrong is when I have let's say 18,000 in chips and blinds are at 1-2,000, if everyone folds to me and i'm in middle position and I get a hand like AJ suited or not, my first intstinct always tells me to move all-in. When I do, I always get called with either a monster hand like AA,KK etc. or get called by bigger stacks with hands like Q9 and catches. I know i'm doing something wrong and to me it's like one of those math problems I have a hard time solving.

[infinii]

Pushing all in when you have 18k and blinds are 1k/2k is not a bad play. In fact, most pro's will tell you that you should be doing it with any two cards, so pushing with AJ isn't a bad play at all.

Once your stack drops below 10 big blinds, you are in danger as your stack loses "fold equity". The size of your plays lacks threat to another playing so it's hard for you reraise and force another player to fold their hand. When you get to 10 or fewer big blinds, any play you make puts you pot committed essentially so you might as well push all in as opposed to making standard raises.

I'd say that you're just unlucky that you run into monsters.

Here's my tips for later game survival:
-look at which players on the table are weak and target them to steal blinds/antes from
-note who shows aggression to blind steals and avoid stealing from them unless you have monster hands
-if you have a big stack and semi decent hand, consider calling that shorty's all in push as he's probably pushing for all the reasons I stated above and your ATo may very well be way ahead of his pushing range of hands
-when stealing blinds, try to steal with 2.5bb raises instead of your standard 3. At late stages of tourneys, you'll run into people pushing over the top alot more frequently then in the early stages. Raising 2.5 just means that you are conserving chips in the event you need to fold to a push. The half blind isn't going to make much difference in whether the big blind calls your raise or not as usually at this stage, your 2.5bb raise is going to be a significant % of most people's stacks. I think I picked up this trick from belowabove (an well known high stakes mtt player).
-note who is stealing alot from the button/cutoff . if you get a decent hand (doesn't even have to be top 10%), dont be afraid to come over the top and resteal. Odds are they are simply stealing blinds/antes from position but if you push back, going all in removes their positional advantage and they have to have a VERY GOOD hand to call your push. If they do, then good luck..you're racing but that's life of mtt's....you need to race at times and get lucky...remember goal is to get all the chips, not simply to preserve the chips you already have.

[Vito_Nuccio]

I agree with both posts so far and would like to add one thing. If you are in the 40-60 range in a 350-400 person tournament the bubble is likely very near. If you are a few positions from making the money, there is argument this mid position AJ suited could be folded. Final table money is much more, but, if you have worked for 2-3 hours to get to the late stage of the tourney, why press so hard when there are 4-5 persons left to act in the hand and when a payoff is just a few hands away. If already in the payouts, then all of this does not matter and the big push is fine with 8-9 times big blind in chips. People tend to play tight just before the bubble, thus a good time to be aggressive, but we are talking about AJ in mid position, not the best spot either way. I would classify this situation as non determining, where one day you play it like this and the other day you play it like that, depending on the players around you and your current mode of play.

[theskipper]

Found myself having the same problems as what your talking about.
The re steal has made a whole world of difference to my game. Its critical to have this in your game and like was mentioned above. I you try picking up the blinds with a 2.5 x bb raise instead of 3xbb it will be more profitable inn the long run if someone comes over the top of u on a re steal.......... crackin question more answers please

[lostinlife32]

This has been an extremely helpful post. If there are any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I seem to run into the same problem. I make it near or just ITM. I need to learn the tools that will enable me to make some more final tables. Thx !!!!!